Arie Aroch

Arie Aroch was born in November 1908 in Kharkiv, which was then part of the Russian Empire and today is part of the Ukraine.

His name was Lyova Nisselvich, the youngest of the three children of Rivka-Shulamit and Haim Nisselvich.

At the time of his birth, Kharkiv was outside the Jewish Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire.

His father was a wealthy merchant active in Zionist political circles in Tzarist Russia.

Among other things, his father was one of the founders of the “Tarbut” Gymnasium in Russia.

At home he received a secular education that included music lessons and exposure to literature and poetry.

During his childhood, he drew all the time.

In an interview years later he said that by age 6 he was making charcoal drawings of whoever was in the house.

In addition Nisselvich was exposed to art exhibitions in Kharkiv.

Among the exhibitions that he is known to have seen is an exhibition of Emmanuel Mane-Katz.

In 1924, Nisselvich made aliyah to Palestine with his parents and his sister, while his older brother remained in the Soviet Union.

During 1925 and 1926 he studied art at “Bezalel.” Among his classmates were Avigdor Stematsky, Moshe Castel, Sionah Tagger, Yehezkel Streichman, etc.

His teachers included the painter Shmuel Ben David, the enamel artist Aaron Shaul Schur, and Jacob Eisenberg, in whose workshops he made ornamental ceramic tiles, for signs, among other things.

In addition, a friendship developed between him and the artist Chaim Gliksberg, who taught him the art of painting with oil paints.

In 1926 he studied in the science track at Gymnasia Herzlia in Tel Aviv.

There the nickname “Aroch” (long) was born and stuck to him because of his height.

This nickname was eventually adopted by Nisselvich as his family name.

In 1929–1930, Aroch spent a year and a half at the Technion studying architecture.

In the 1930s painting “Portrait”, Aroch also uses expressionistic brush strokes to create this melancholy portrait.

Unlike those of other painters, Aroch's paintings don't exceed the boundaries of artistic representation, and his expressive brushstrokes don't turn into a description with abstract underpinnings.

In 1932 he studied for a short time in the painting studio that Joseph Zaritsky had opened.

In addition, he was accepted into the Israeli Painters and Sculptors Association, in the framework of which he exhibited in the association's general exhibition.

On the death of his father in 1932, Aroch erected a tombstone in the Trumpeldor Cemetery and engraved on it a poem by David Shimoni, his teacher at Gymnasia Herzlia.

In 1934, his mother died also.

In 1934 Aroch went to Paris and studied there in the Académie Colarossi.

Among other things Aroch participated in a number of lessons given by the cubist painter Fernand Léger.

In the painting “Interior with Chair” (1935), which Aroch painted during his stay in Paris, the interior of a blue room is depicted in quick strokes of the paintbrush, with a red chair in the center of the room upon which various items of clothing are spread.

The style of this painting, which is typical of Aroch during this period, typifies the subdued expressionism that Aroch adopted under the influence of artists of the “Paris School,” such as Chaïm Soutine, Marc Chagall, Isaac Frenkel and Mané-Katz.

Upon his return to Palestine in 1936, Aroch earned his living as a land surveyor.

He married Ellen Albeck (Elroy), whom he met on the boat on the way back from Paris.

This marriage lasted only a short time.

With regard to his art, Aroch continued to paint under the influence of the Paris School.

He participated in a group exhibition in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and he designed the set for “The White Circle” (1936), a Japanese legend directed by Friedrich Lobe at the “Ohel” Theatre, and for the play, “HaShomrin,” by Ever-Hadani at Habima Theatre.

Aroch spent the years 1938–1939 in Amsterdam.

The influence of Vincent van Gogh can be seen in “Vase of Flowers and Still Life” (1938), in which the energetic brushstrokes and the theme typical of Van Gogh stand out.

In 1971, Aroch was awarded the Israel Prize in Painting for his work.

Arie Aroch (in Hebrew אריה ארוך; born 1908, in Russia – October 15, 1974, in Israel) was an Israeli painter and diplomat born in Kharkiv, now Ukraine and then part of the Russian Empire.

Aroch's work was a mixture of Pop Art and abstract art, along with elements from his biography.

In addition, many scholars of the history of Israeli art have pointed out Aroch's pioneering use of Jewish themes in his works.

His painting style included unstructured scribbling and drawing, and it influenced a broad range of artists, including Raffi Lavie, Aviva Uri, etc. Sarah Breitberg Semel, in her article, Agrippa versus Nimrod (1988), suggested Aroch as a model for the new Israeli concept of design in art, and suggested his painting, Agrippas Street was the representative of Jewish identity.